Sussex Central wrestling wins Henlopen Conference Championship
Winning team championships at conference tournaments requires a few hammers at the top of the 14-weight-class lineup and depth of quality in the rest of the toolbox. Points are awarded for wins and pins.
Sussex Central emerged as Henlopen Conference meet champion after two days of competition, Feb. 21-22, with 227 points, followed by Caesar Rodney 220, Cape Henlopen 191, Smyrna 174, Sussex Tech 142 and Lake Forest 139 rounding out the top six places.
Caesar Rodney had three champions while Sussex Central, Cape and Sussex Tech each crowned two. Laurel, Lake Forest, Indian River, Milford and Smyrna each crowned one champion.
Caesar Rodney qualified 11 wrestlers for the state tournament, while Sussex Central and Cape will both send 10 wrestlers to states. Smyrna has nine competitors going, and Sussex Tech has six.
Zach Toadvine of Laurel was voted Henlopen Conference Coach of the Year.
Nathan Moore, a Laurel eighth-grader and champion at 113 pounds, was voted Outstanding Wrestler for the Henlopen Conference Tournament.
“We wrestled well after not having a great dual-meet season, with two conference champions in Nick [Walker] at 150 and Patrick [Donahue] at 215,” said coach Chris Mattioni. “And we qualified 10 for states, and that’s without Austin [Guerrieri] at 120, who is out with a broken elbow.”
The brackets for the state tournament are already posted at trackwrestling.com.
Henlopen Conference Tournament champions and first-place matches were: 106, Benjamin Donato (Caesar Rodney) over Austen Decker (Sussex Central), tech fall 3:43; 113, Nathan Moore (Laurel) over Gavin Robbins (Caesar Rodney), fall 3:54; 120, Malachi Stratton (Sussex Central) over Cole Moffett (Caesar Rodney), major decision 15-2; 126, Anthony Andrews (Sussex Tech) over Hobe Givens (Indian River), tech fall 1.5 4:00; 132, Evan Cordrey (Sussex Central) over Logan King (Sussex Tech), major decision 12-0; 138, Trevor Copes (Caesar Rodney) over Jazmon Snead (Delmar), major decision 10-2; 144, Jerusalem Howard (Lake Forest) over Justin Craig (Sussex Central), decision 6-0; 150, Nicolas Walker (Cape Henlopen) over John Rovillard (Sussex Central), fall 3:12; 157, Dustin Elliott (Sussex Tech) over Jami White (Milford), tech fall 1.5 4:05; 165, Craig Dixon (Caesar Rodney) over Stanley Pete (Laurel), decision 12-9; 175, Jayvion Chandler (Indian River) over Douglas Horton (Sussex Academy), fall 5:59; 190, Teagan Gratkowski (Smyrna) over Brian Seward (Milford), fall 1:29; 215, Patrick Donahue (Cape) over Mason Schulenburg (Smyrna), tech fall 1.5 3:02; 285, Greg Lockett (Milford) over Tristan Cooper (Caesar Rodney), decision 7-3.
Notes: Top seed at 150 Nick Walker received a first-round bye and only had to wrestle three times to claim his championship. Blake Walker, a freshman at 113 with no byes and no breaks, posted a 5-1 record to claim their place. Blake lost to Nate Moore in the quarterfinals on an overtime sudden-victory takedown, and Moore went on to win the tournament and be voted Outstanding Wrestler. Max Meadows won by fall in the quarterfinals with one second left in the second period and won a wrestle back with a sudden victory in overtime. Max placed fourth in the tournament. Douglas Horton of Sussex Academy made it to the finals at 175, where he lost to Jayvion Chandler of Indian River.
